A CHOICE IN ETHIOPIA: Jesus or My Gun?

VOMRadio

The Voice of the Martyrs

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brother Alayu was a very young man when he became a follower of Christ. Soon after, he was persecuted for that choice, even facing a communist official who told Alayu to "choose Jesus or my gun."

Alayu chose Jesus—and he continues to do so. Today, he is a leader with Global Call, a church-planting work in Ethiopia and surrounding nations, where he has seen great hunger for the gospel and a great move of God—in spite of the persecution Christians often face.

Listen as he shares about ministry today in areas dominated by Ethiopian Orthodox teaching—a mixture of ancient Jewish teachings, some Christian ideas and even traditional African religious and witch doctor practices. Alayu and his workers have seen many people—even Orthodox priests—come to life-changing faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Alayu will also describe the importance of delivering Bibles and equip us to pray for Ethiopia and for the church there.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brother Alayu came to faith in Jesus at age 12 in Ethiopia. A few years later, his devotion to Christ would be tested.
0:10.0	I had been 16 when communist leaders came to me and took me to their office and asked me to denounce Jesus.
0:22.0	The communist leader, he put his gun on his table and he asked me to choose from Jesus or my gun.
0:33.0	Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
0:40.0	He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus' words came true in the life of the apostles and they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world.
0:50.0	Join host Todd Netletons. We hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
0:58.0	Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My name is Todd Netletons and I am in the studio today in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with Brother Alayu.
1:06.0	He is from an organization called Global Call. They are working to spread the gospel in Ethiopia but also in some of the surrounding nations.
1:17.0	Brother Alayu, welcome to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
1:21.0	Thank you so much for having me.
1:23.0	We are just thrilled that you're here. I want to start out by talking a little bit about your story.
1:30.0	You were born into a family of Ethiopian Orthodox priests and yet you are now a follower of Jesus Christ.
1:39.0	Talk about how you came to faith in Christ.
1:43.0	I was 12 years old when I encountered Jesus Christ as my personal savior.
1:50.0	Missionaries from America came to my village and they introduced us to Jesus Christ.
1:58.0	I just wanted to have a peace and went to the missionaries and asked them, I am in fear of hell.
2:08.0	Do you please help me to be saved and they just told me Jesus Christ and I came to know the Lord and the overflow of joy was such amazing at that time.
2:22.0	The whole family, I have eight brothers and a sister and everyone came to know the Lord because of that encounter.
2:33.0	I would suspect though at first they weren't very happy to have our son, our brother saying, wait a minute, I follow Jesus now.
2:44.0	What was their initial response when you said, I've come to faith?
2:49.0	They were very disappointed and they forced me actually to leave the home.
2:58.0	But finally my father was, my kids are so good, why I pushed them out.
	...

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